This innocent bit of pipe work has taken months to get fitted! It has taken so long as no-one knew exactly what was needed here. This vents the soil pipe from the bathroom and at the top sits a Durgo valve, a necessary bit of kit to equalise the pressure in the soil pipe. No-one over the last few months really knew where the Durgo valve was supposed to go, many said it should be inside and those who said it could be outside didn’t know exactly where outside… Friends have helped out, asked their plumber mates, I’ve read more online about Durgo valves than I would care to mention…
… and finally we have a Durgo valve fitted outside in what we hope is the correct place. Basically most Durgo valves go inside, but if they do go outside they have to be at least 200mm above the highest point wastewater will reach within the soil pipe. That is the only hard and fast rule we have come across, so we are kind of guessing here. Crossing fingers it will be fine.
The dining room is in the side of the house that will be worked on in phase 2, the kitchen extension will be off this room and we will also be replacing the roof, ceiling above here and digging the floor level down. So we have installed cheap temporary radiators here until phase 2.
Dining room rear wall with new radiator. This was where the old bathroom was.
The radiator is straight but the wall isn’t, requiring some wood to bolster the wall bracket.
The old radiator in Cat’s bedroom went pop as our plumber Andrew pressure tested the system and the water went through the ceiling and into the dining room below. Thank god there are no finished ceilings or floors in this side of the house!
The hole created when it went pop.
Some rather funky old wallpaper going on here. What a colour!
So we had to replace with a new cheap white radiator, another temporary one until phase 2.
We now have heating in some of the rooms though! Andrew has been here for 2 days days this week and has got the dining room, Cat’s bedroom, the sitting room and the bathroom radiators working. The study and attic radiators are not able to be fitted yet due to no flooring, and the rads on the landing and in Zanna’s bedroom Andrew will test and get working next week. It is amazing to have heating again, just in time for the heatwave due at the weekend!
Our skip is going on Friday so Colin helps sort out the pile of old boards (that have been used in the house and garden over the last year) and chuck the rotten ones on the skip.
Watering our vine as it has become really dry. We are hoping the vine survives this.
Our wheelbarrow now has a brand new wheel.
There was a little leak in the garage where the radiator pipes go through the wall from the dining room.
Something else for Andrew to fix that wasn’t on his list!
The following day and Andrew has thought about it overnight and is not happy about where the Durgo valve is sitting, so he has gone out and bought another length of expensive soil pipe (at his own cost!) to raise the Durgo higher.
Our hedge is beginning to topple over into the road, it does need trimming (not top of our priority list at the moment) but it is also being pushed over by the pile of stone in the garden. Once the skip has gone we will be able to tackle the hedge and stake it all along but for now Colin has shifted the stones that were leaning on the bottom of the hedge.
Like all of us this lockdown, it is in desperate need of a haircut.
The hedge toppling over into the road, but look at the pretty flowers. Note how the yellow flowers are perfectly positioned next to the yellow boards.
Some rather interested calves and an angry looking mum cow. The massive bull in the background couldn’t care less.
The calves are always rather interested in Jasper the dog, running towards us as we walk past. Thank god for the electric fence.
Jasper rather interested in the calves. He thinks they are deer, they think he is a fox…
Whoa, I LOVE that old wallpaper.
Bonkers, isn’t it!